"In the School of Jesus"

First Presbyterian Church
Peter S. Buehler
January 27, 2008
Matthew 4:12-23

And he said to them, "Follow me,
and I will make you fish for people."

The story of the calling of the first disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, could not be more brief -- five verses, blink and you've missed it. No sooner do the four meet Jesus than he says to them "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." No introductions, no dialogue, no time for question and answer, no weighing of alternatives. They make up their minds "immediately."

What do we make of this? If Jesus came up to us unannounced when we were at work, or in the middle of our chores, or occupied with schoolwork, or busy with something of importance and out of nowhere said Follow me, what would we do?
Would we drop everything and do as he said? Is this what being Christ's disciple means, that we need to make up our minds right away?

I'm uncomfortable with that. I don't like people pressuring me to make up my mind; I need time to think. I don't make good decisions when I'm in a hurry; some of my worst decisions have been when I just wanted to get them over with. "OK, fine, let's do it that way." Translated: OK, fine, let's do it your way."

Sometimes we want to appear decisive, to show people how sure we are of what we know, how sure we are of ourselves, when in fact we don't want to take the time to go through a more careful process of discernment and decision-making -- it seems like a bother -- so we say, Let's just do it. It feels good to say that! Decisive people say Just do it!

I'm not so sure. It's not a bad thing to go slow when our decisions are big. And I don't think our passage from Matthew is advising us to "Just do it." Something deeper and more powerful is at work in the calling of the disciples, in our calling to follow Jesus. What's happening here?

We tend to speculate about Peter and Andrew, James and John. That they must have been ready for Jesus. That they had heard about him and were intrigued; somehow they were waiting for him. Perhaps they were discontented, tired of being fishermen, and were seeking a more meaningful path of life, a messiah to follow. We don't know. What we know is the text is silent about this.

It is also silent about Jesus' personality, how charismatic he was, whether people, when he looked them in the eye and spoke to them, immediately did what he said. There is very little in the Gospels about this.

We wonder what it must have been like to meet Jesus. Would we be able to pick him out in a crowd? Was his appearance unusual? Was he tall or short? Did he have a commanding voice or a normal voice? Was he charismatic -- convincing not only with his words but with the force of his personality, his sheer presence?
Was it possible to say No to him? A lot of people did then, a lot of people do today -- so Jesus' personality and charisma are not what matter, at least in Matthew's Gospel.

There's something more going on here in his calling of these four men. I used to think it had to do with personality, theirs and his. I don't anymore. I think this text is all about the power of the kingdom of heaven as it is seen and heard in the words of Jesus. When Jesus speaks, something happens; something changes; something opens up. When Jesus speaks, God is present. When Jesus speaks, an invitation is made. When Jesus speaks his grace and truth are in every word so that he can be trusted completely. When Jesus speaks, he sets us free to follow him. He lets us decide.

The fact is we follow Jesus because we want to. Peter and Andrew, James and John left their nets behind because they wanted to. When the kingdom of God comes close in the person of Jesus -- and we meet him today through his words just as the fishermen did -- what happens in us is what happened in them: we want to live our lives in his light. Sundays are for light; they are about renewing our citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven as it is seen and heard in the words of Jesus. Bible study, small groups, private devotion -- all are times to let the Kingdom come close in Christ.

And what is so powerful in our passage is that Jesus is doing the seeking. There is no indication in the text that the four fishermen were interested in anything but fishing. Peter and Andrew were knee-deep in the Sea of Galilee casting their net, James and John were in the family fishing boat mending theirs -- all four were working hard making a living. They were not out looking for a Teacher, he was out looking for them -- the reverse of what was customary. In biblical times, someone wanting to be a disciple went to a rabbi and asked to become his student, asked to be apprenticed to him. If accepted, the disciple went to live with the rabbi. "Follow me," in rabbinic speech, meant "become my student, join my school, live with me."

Yet with Jesus, even before we seek, we are sought. He takes the initiative! He invites us to join his school, to learn from him, to walk with him, to live with him.
He doesn't seek out certain people with certain qualifications -- a 4.0 grade point average, a 4.0 life. Whoever we are, he comes to us in the middle of what we're doing and asks us to trust him, to follow him.
I wonder if we're always a bit startled when he comes, if we're ever really ready for him.

You've noticed that the Nominating Committee is asking for recommendations for elders and deacons. This is the time of year when a lot of Presbyterians go into hiding. "Uh-oh, what if the Nominating Committee calls? Best to let all calls in January and February go straight to voicemail.

Serious involvement in the ministry and governance of the church -- are we ever ready for this? Of course there are times when we need to say No because we have other commitments -- we are busy. But if our reluctance has to do with other things, such as wondering if we're up to the task, if we have the gifts and abilities needed, if we have the energy for it, if we have the faith for it -- I hope we take today's passage to heart. Because the four fishermen could not possibly have known what they were getting into. Yet Jesus found them and called them, and they said Yes.

We wonder if they worried they might fail -- flunk discipleship and disappoint Jesus. Which they did. Yet even that possibility did not stop Jesus. That to me is a huge encouragement! Some of us have discovered that it's precisely when we have failed that the Lord comes calling, that we meet him then, that he finds us in our low times.

One of the low days of my life was when I gave a sermon at a friend's installation service some years ago. The church was full, the congregation was excited about their newly called pastor, and all the other participants in the service, the other clergy, had been wise, engaging, eloquent and funny. Then I got up to preach. It felt like the place got quiet, and it stayed quiet -- only not for the right reasons. I think everyone was bored; I realized even I was bored. It felt like pushing a rock uphill. It was awful. After it was over, I went to sit behind the communion table with the other participants in the service. It was a marble-topped table, which, as I was sitting down, I managed to hit my head on with such force that the sound could be heard in the back of the sanctuary. Unlike my sermon, that got a reaction from the congregation. For the rest of the service I sat with a dazed expression on my face. I honestly thought my career was over. The congregation, I'm sure, wondered if I had had a concussion. I just wanted to go home, go to bed, and not get up.

As it turned out, however, in spite of that evening -- maybe because of it -- a church took the chance of calling me to be their pastor. They had seen me at my worst, so I could only get better -- that must have been something they said after seeing me. But the experience taught me three things. That my wife's encouragement of me on the ride home from that church was better for my head than the two Tylenol. Second, that there are worse things in life than failing in public; it may feel like you're dying but you're really not. And third, Jesus loves people who fail. He finds us when we need him.

When that occurs, we want to say Yes. Jesus came to Peter and Andrew, James and John and told them to follow him, that he would teach them to catch people.
We can have a hard time saying Yes to that. We don't want to "catch" people, we don't want to force them into our net -- into our faith, into our church. Of course Jesus never forces anyone, we see that for ourselves in the Gospels. Yet the point is that the kingdom of God, which is so clear and compelling and beautiful and freeing in Jesus Christ and in his Word -- that is what's catching! To show other people this person, this source of purpose and joy and comfort in life, this Jesus -- is the best thing we can do. We don't have to force anything or anyone, the Spirit itself is catching. Happiness is catching. Being forgiven is catching.
Using one's gifts to help others, to make a difference in their lives, is catching.
Worshipping, singing hymns, praying together, being a part of a faith community, is catching. Sharing God's love is catching.

I want to close with a thought about the word "immediately." It's an important word; each of the first four disciples responded to Jesus in this way. They were not hypnotized by him, they were not under his power, they were not unfree. But they did act, they did obey Jesus -- and that is something we want to do. We want to have the word obey in our vocabulary.

If the person we loved and admired and trusted most in this world asked us to do one thing for her, one thing for him, would we not do it immediately? So too with Jesus.

Albert Edward Day, who lived from 1894-1973, taught and preached the Christian life. I'm struck by his words and by a distinction he makes. "Obedience is indispensable," he writes. "Not to a static code… But obedience to God, who is present with us in every situation and is speaking to us all the time" (italics Day's).

How shall we obey God this week? I wonder if that can be our prayer, that each day there be an opportunity for us to follow Jesus, a moment when we say Yes.

What might that obedience look like? Admitting a mistake? Asking for forgiveness? Speaking up when truth needs to be told? Taking time to help when we're in a hurry? Taking time for prayer?

Might our obedience involve taking a step to deal positively with a problem, or a person -- to not put it off but to trust the One who is completely trustworthy?

How will Jesus meet us this week? When he finds us, what will we be doing?

What matters is how we respond. What will happen when we say Yes?